“X-Manhunt” has come to X-Factor with the book’s eighth issue, by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn. However, instead of kicking the book off with X-Factor about to fight the X-Men over Xavier, readers get to see the book’s ostensible star, Havok, who has just quit the team. Havok is having a crisis, leaving a message on Polaris’s voice mail, and it’s one that has changed the way he looks at his heroic career. Havok is one of the more interesting characters in the history of the Marvel Universe. As the brother of Cyclops, he’s been in a long shadow for much of his existence, and his years with the X-Men and X-Factor haven’t been nearly successful as his illustrious brother.
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Havok is the long-suffering hero to end them all. Havok’s message to Polaris is all about loss and how it affects people — something that comes up later in the book as well. Havok has been having a rough time since the X-Men’s Krakoa Era, but it started years before. Havok is one of the more underrated X-Men, and his current crisis is part and parcel of why. Havok never had an easy time of things, so him finally breaking makes a lot of sense. Havok’s history is full of loss, and digging into it shows the price of being an X-Man.
Havok’s Life Has Been Hit After Hit in the Face
Havok joining Angel in the new X-Factor was basically a stop gap measure. The Krakoa Era saw Havok at his lowest; he moved to Summers House on the moon, but he wasn’t happy and this, as well as the years of damage done to his brain by mind control, would cause him to lose control of his powers. He was relegated to the Hellions, the team of mutants whose emotional issues made them liabilities to other teams, where he was reunited with Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne and Havok’s history is a complicated one. Havok fell in love with his brother’s wife, and she decided to use her telepathy to make him her servant. He ended up killing her on that initial Hellions mission, his powers used by Psylocke to destroy Maddie’s hideout, which didn’t make things any easier for him. Eventually, Maddie would be resurrected and the two of them would get back together. Their relationship was terrible for Havok; he was basically Maddie’s love slave and was killed, with Maddie using her magic to resurrect him.
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None of this left Havok in a particularly great place when he joined the new X-Factor, and he basically just did it so he would have something to do. Havok has spent years as the Summers brother who gets kicked around the most. He’s led teams, both X-Factor and the X-Men, but he’s never been considered one of the X-Men’s better leaders. His plasma powers are highly destructive, but no one would consider Havok as one of the more powerful members of the team. Every woman who loves him leaves him at some point — his relationship with longtime girlfriend Polaris has been gone for ages and Maddie is, well, Maddie. She’s never seen Havok as anything but an object. Havok’s mind has been a playground for enemies for years, and he’s been forced to betray his friends and family multiple times over the years as well. Havok is a great hero, but his years of pain have broken him. Later in X-Factor #8, Havok has another battle with his brother Cyclops, one that goes a lot further than any of their previous fist fights. Havok is a broken man, and there’s good reason for that.
Havok Is Tired of Being the X-Men’s Punching Bag
The life of a superhero is never easy. A big part of their lives is pain, and readers have seen some terrible things happen to their favorite heroes. Even in a world where someone like Spider-Man can lose family, friends, girlfriends, and even his marriage, what’s happened to Havok over the years is terrible. Havok was always going to have a rough road — comparing anyone to Cyclops is going to be a losing proposition — but the fact that he became the poster boy for being mind-controlled made things worse. Havok’s brain is basically Swiss cheese, and he’s lost everything because of that.
However, even with Havok’s life falling apart around him, he still goes with Cargill to help free Xavier from the clutches of the X-Men. Havok may be at his worst, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to rest on his laurels. Havok doesn’t really know any other life; he’s been a superhero all his life. While it seems like he’s about to quit the game, Havok quitting would be taking away the only thing in life he’s ever had. However, if there was any hero who deserved to pack the life in, it’s Havok.
X-Factor #8 is on sale where ever comics are sold.
